Below notes are my highlights from reading SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others.
Index of Contents
- Introduction
- The SCARF Model
- Education and Training
- Coaching
- Leadership Development
- Organizational Systems
- Summary
- Much of our motivation driving social behavior is governed by an overaching organizing principle of minimizing threat and maximizing reward.
- Several domains of social experience draw upon the same brain networks used for primary survival needs. Social needs are treated in much the same way in the brain as the need for food and water.
- The SCARF model summarizes these two themes within a framework that captures the common factors that can activate a reward or threat response in social situations. This model can be applied in any situation where people collaborate in groups, including all types of workplaces, educational environments, family settings and general social events.
- The SCARF model involves five domains of human social experience: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
- This model enables people to more easily remember, recognize and potentially modify the core social domains that drive human behavior. Labelling and understanding these drivers draws conscious awereness to otherwise non conscious processes, which can help in two ways.
- Firstly, knowing the drivers that can cause a threat response enables people to design interactions to minimize threats.
- Secondly, knowing about the drivers that can activate a reward response enables people to motivate others more effectively by tapping into internal rewards, thereby reducing the reliance on external rewards such as money.
- If a stimulus is associated with positive emotions or rewards, it will likely to lead to an approach response; if it is associated with negative emotions or punishments, it will likely lead to an avoid response. The response is particularly strong when the stimulus is associated with survival.
- Studies show that the approach-avoid response drives attention at a fundamental level - nonconsciously, automatically and quickly. It's a reflexive activity.
| Response | Synonyms in literature | Which traditional primary factors activate the response | What social factors/situations activate the response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Advance, attack, reward, resource, expand, solution, strength, construct, engage. | Rewards in form of money, food, water, sex, shelter, physical assets for survival | Happy, attractive faces. Rewards in the form of increasing status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, fairness. |
| Avoid | Withdraw, retreat, danger, threat, contract, problem ,weakness, deconstruct. | Punishment in the form of removal of money or other resources or threats like a large hungry predator or a gun | Fearful, unattractive, unfamiliar faces. Threats in the form of decreasing status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, fairness |
- Someone feeling threatened by a boss who is undermining their credibility is less likely to be able to solve complex problems and more likely to make mistakes.
- The reduced cognitive performance is driven several factors.
- Firstly, when a human being senses a threat, resources available for overall executive functions in the prefontal cortex decrease. There is a strong negative correlation between the amount of threat activation and the resources available for prefrontal cortex.
- The result is literally less oxygen and glucose available for the brain functions involved in working memory, which impacts linear, conscious processing.
- When feeling threatened by one's boss, it's harder to find smart answers because of diminished cognitive resources.
- Secondly, when threatened, the increased overall activation in the brain inhibits people from perceiving the more subtle signals required for solving non-linear problems, involved in the insight or "aha!" experience.
- Thirdly, with the amygdala activated, the dendency is to generalize more, which increases the likelihood of accidental connections.
- Firstly, when a human being senses a threat, resources available for overall executive functions in the prefontal cortex decrease. There is a strong negative correlation between the amount of threat activation and the resources available for prefrontal cortex.
- The avoid response generates far more arousal in the limbic system, more quickly and with longer lasting effects than an approach response. This discovery that our brain is inherently attuned to threatening stimuli helps explain many disquieting parts of life, from why the media focuses on bad news to why people are self-critical. It also points to the need to understand the social nature of the brain and proactively minimize common social threats.
- The approach response (engagement) is a state of being willing to do difficult things, to take risks, to think deeply about issues and develop new solutions. An approach state is also closely linked to positive emotions. This state is one of increased dopamine levels, important for interest and learning.
- The SCARF model is an easy way to remember and act upon the social triggers that can generate both the approach and avoid responses. The goal if this model is to help minimize the easily activated threat responses, and maximize positive engaged states of mind during attempts to collaborate with and influence others.
- Status is about relative importance, "pecking order" and seniority. Humans hold a representation of status in relation to others when in conversations, and this affects mental processes in many ways.
- The perception of a potential or real reduction in status can generate a strong threat response.
- It can be surprisingly easy to accidentally threaten someone's sense of status. A status threat can occur though giving advice or instructions or simply suggesting someone is slightly ineffective at a task. Many everyday conversations devolve into arguments driven by a status threat, a desire to not be perceived as less than another. When threatened, people may defend a position that doesn't make sense, to avoid the perceived pain of a drop in status.
- In most people, the question "can I offer you some feedback" generates a similar response to hearing fast footsteps behind you at night.
- If leaders want to change others' behavior, more attention must be paid to reducing status threats when giving feedback. One way to do this by allowing people to give themselves feedback on their own performance.
- Organizations know all about using status as a reward and many managers feel compelled to reward employees primarily via a promotion. This may have the unfortunate side effect of promoting people to the point of their incompetence. The research suggests that status can be increased in more sustainable ways.
- For example, people feel a status increase when they feel they are learning and improving and when attention is paid to this improvement. This probably occurs because individuals think about themselves using the same brain networks they use for thinking about others. For example, beating one's own best time at a task or sporting activity, the reward circuitry from a sense of being 'better than' is activated, but in this case, the person one is 'better than' is oneself in the past.
- Status can go up when people are given positive feedback, especially public acknowledgment. One study showed activation of the reward circuitry in children being as strong as money when told "That's correct" by a repetitive computer voice.
- Finally, status is about one's relative position in a community of importance such as a professional group or social club based on what is valued.
- The brain is a pattern recognition machine that is constantly trying to predict the near future.
- To pick up a cup of coffee, the sensory system, sensing the position of the fingers at each moment, interacts dynamically with the motor cortex to determine where to move your fingers next. Your fingers don't draw on fresh data each time; the brain draws on the memory of what a cup is supposed to feel like in the hand, based on expectations drawn from previous experiences. If it feels different, perhaps slippery, you immediately pay attention.
- The brain likes to know the pattern occurring moment to moment, it craves certainty, so that prediction is possible. Without prediction, the brain must use dramatically use more resources, involving the more energy-intensive prefrontal cortex, to process moment-to-moment experience.
- Even small amount of uncertainty generates an "error" response in the orbital frontal cortex (OFC). This takes attention away from one's goals, forcing attention to the error.
- The act of creating a sense of certainty is rewarding. Examples are everywhere in daily life: music that has simple repeating patterns is rewarding because of the ability to predict the flow of information. MEeting expectations generates an increase in dopamine levels in the brain, a reward response.
- Any kind of significant change generates uncertainty.
- As people build business plans, strategirs or map out an organization's structure, they feel increasing levels of clarity about how an organization might better function in the future.
- Breaking a complex project down into small steps does the same. Another key tool involves establishing clear expectations of what might happen in any situation, as well as expectations of desirable outcomes.
- In learning situations, the old adage is "tell people what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them", all of which increases certainty.
- Autonomy is the perception of exerting control over one's environment; a sensation of having choices.
- Several studies in the retirement industry find strong correlations between a sense of control and health outcomes. People leave corporate life, often for far less income, because they desire greater autonomy.
- A reduction in autonomy, for example when being micro managed, can generate a strong threat response. When one senses lack of control, the experience is of a lack of agency, or an inability to influence outcomes.
- Working in a team necessitates a reduction in autonomy. In healthy cultures, this potential; threat tends to be counteracted with an increase in status, certainty and relatedness. With an autonomy threat just below the surface, it can be helpful to pay attention to this driver. The statement "Here's two options that could work, which would you prefer?" will tend to elicit a better response than "Here's what you have to do now".
- Allowing people to set up their own desks, organize their workflow, even manage their working hours, can all be beneficial if done within agreed parameters.
- Relatedness involves deciding whether others are in or out of a social group.
- People naturally like to form 'tribes' where they experience a sense of belonging.
- Studies have shown far greater collaboration when people are given a shot of oxytocin, through a nasal spray.
- A handshake, swapping names and discussing something in common, be it just the weather, may increase feeling of closeness by causing the release of oxytocin.
- The greater that people trust one another, the stronger the collaboration and the more information that is shared.
- Increasing globalization highlights the importance managing relatedness threats. Collaboration between people from different cultures, who are unlikely to meet in person, can be especially hard work.
- A Gallup report showed that organizations that encourage water cooler conversations increased productivity.
- To increase the reward response from relatedness, the key is to find ways to increase safe connections between people. Some examples include setting up clearly defined buddy systems, mentoring or coaching programs, or small action learning groups.
- Unfair exchanges generate a strong threat response. This sometimes includes activation of the insular, a part of the brain involved in intense emotions such as disgust. Unfair situations may drive people to die to right perceived injustices, such as in political struggles. People who perceive others as unfair don't feel empathy for their pain, and in some instances, will feel rewarded when unfair others are punished.
- The threat from perceived unfairness can be decrased by increasing transparency and increasing the level of communication and involvement about business issues. For example, organizations that allow employees to know details about financial processes may have an advantage here.
- A sense of unfairness can result from a lack of clear ground rules, expectations or objectives.
- Teaching children who feel threatened, disconnected, socially rejected or treated unfairly is an uphill battle. For example, the educators can create a nurturing learning environment by pointing out specifically how people are improving, which increases a sense of status.
- Status can be increased through regular positive feedback, attention to incremental improvements, and the achievement of large goals.
- Certainty can be increased by identifying central goals, and subsequently reducing the uncertainty inherent in maintaining multiple focuses.
- Breaking down large goals into smaller steps increases certainty about how a goal can be reached.
- Finding ways to take action when challenges appear insurmountable can increase autonomy.
- Relatedness can be increased through the relationship with the coach.
- Fairness can be reduced through seeing situations from other perspectives.
- Many new leaders may negatively impact the domains of SCARF by accident. They may know how things should be done, and subsequently provide too much direction and not enough positive feedback, thereby affecting people's status.
- They often don't provide clear expectations, impacting certainty.
- They micro manage, impacting autonomy.
- They want to maintain a professional distance, impacting relatedness.
- They may impact fairness by not being transparent enough.
- When the oppposite happens and you meet someone who makes you feel better about yourself, provides clear expectations, lets you make decisions, trusts yu and is fair, you will probably work harder for them as you feel intrinsically rewarded by the relationship itself.
- Spending time around a leader like this activates an approach response and opens up people's thinking, allowing others to see information they wouldn't see in an avoid state.
- Techniques for motivating and rewarding staff are largely based on the carrot and stick principle, with the carrot mostly involving money or promotion.
- The SCARF model points to more creative ways of motivating that may not just be cheaper, but also stronger and more sustainable.
- For example, success could be rewarded by increasing people's autonomy by allowing them to have greater flexibility in their work hours.
- Or, rewards could be provided via increasing the opportunity for learning new skills, which can increase a sense of status.
- Or, people could be rewarded through increasing relatedness through allowing more time to network with peers during work hours.
- Understanding these drivers can help individuals and organizations to function more effectively reducing conflicts that occur so easily amongst people, and increasing the amount of time people spend in the approach state, a concept synonymous with good performance.